CHAPTER 8

ORTHOGONAL
FREQUENCY DIVISION
MULTIPLEXING
(OFDM)

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OFDM 8-1
 INTRODUCTION
• OFDM created great expansion in wireless
networks
– Greater efficiency in bps/Hz
• Main air interface in the change from 3G to 4G
– Also expanded 802.11 rates
• Critical technology for broadband wireless
access
– WiMAX

OFDM 8-2
 HOW OFDM WORKS
• Also called multicarrier modulation
• Start with a data stream of R bps
– Could be sent with bandwidth Nfb
– With bit duration 1/R
• OFDM splits into N parallel data streams
– Called subcarriers
– Each with bandwidth fb
– And data rate R/N (bit time N/R)

OFDM 8-3
FIGURE 8.1 CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING OF ORTHOGONAL
FREQUENCY DIVISION MULTIPLEXING OFDM 8-4
 ORTHOGONALITY
• The spacing of the fb frequencies allows tight packing
of signals
– Actually with overlap between the signals
– Signals at spacing of fb ,2fb, 3fb ,etc.
• The choice of fb is related to the modulation symbol
rate to make the signals orthogonal
– Average over symbol time of s1(t) × s2(t) = 0
– Receiver is able to extract only the s1(t) signal
• If there is no corruption in the frequency spacing
• Traditional FDM makes signals completely avoid
frequency overlap
– OFDM allows overlap which greatly increases capacity

OFDM 8-5
FIGURE 8.2 ILLUSTRATION OF ORTHOGONALITY OF OFDM
OFDM 8-6
 ORTHOGONALITY
• Given an OFDM subcarrier symbol time of T
– fb must be a multiple of 1/T
• Example: IEEE 802.11n wireless LAN
– 20 MHz total bandwidth
• Only 15 MHz can be used
– 48 subcarriers
– fb = 0.3125 MHz
– Signal is translated to 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz bands

OFDM 8-7
 BENEFITS OF OFDM
• Frequency selective fading only affects some
subcarriers
– Can easily be handled with a forward error-correcting code
• More importantly, OFDM overcomes intersymbol
interference (ISI)
– ISI is a caused by multipath signals arriving in later bits
– OFDM bit times are much, much longer (by a factor of N)
• ISI is dramatically reduced
– N is chosen so the root-mean-square delay spread is
significantly smaller than the OFDM bit time
– It may not be necessary to deploy equalizers to overcome
ISI
• Eliminates the use of these complex and expensive devices.

OFDM 8-8
 OFDM IMPLEMENTATION
• Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT)
– The OFDM concept (Figure 8.1) would use N oscillators
for N different subcarrier frequencies
• Expensive for transmitter and receiver
– Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) processes digital signals
• If N is a power of two, the computational speed dramatically
improves by using the fast version of the DFT (FFT).
– Transmitter takes a symbol from each subcarrier
• Makes an OFDM symbol
• Uses the Inverse FFT to compute the data stream to be transmitted
• OFDM symbol provides the weights for each subcarrier
• Then it is sent on the carrier using only one oscillator
OFDM 8-9
FIGURE 8.3 IFFT IMPLEMENTATION OF OFDM
OFDM 8-10
 CYCLIC PREFIX
• OFDM’s long bit times eliminate most of the ISI
• OFDM also uses a cyclic prefix (CP) to overcome
the residual ISI
– Adds additional time to the OFDM symbol before the
real data is sent
• Called the guard interval
• ISI diminishes before the data starts
– Data from the end of the OFDM symbol is used as the
CP
• Simplifies the computations

OFDM 8-11
 samples

FIGURE 8.4 CYCLIC PREFIX

OFDM 8-12
 DIFFICULTIES OF OFDM
• Peak-to-average power ratio (PAPR)
– For OFDM signals, this ratio is much higher than for single-
carrier signals
– OFDM signal is a sum of many subcarrier signals
• Total can be very high or very low
• Power amplifiers need to amplify all amplitudes equally

Vout = KVin
– Should have a linear characteristic with slope K on a Vout vs. Vin
curve
– Yet practical amplifiers have limited linear ranges
• Causing distortion if outside the linear range

OFDM 8-13
FIGURE 8.5 IDEAL AND PRACTICAL AMPLIFIER CHARACTERISTICS
OFDM 8-14
FIGURE 8.6 EXAMPLES OF LINEAR AND NONLINEAR
AMPLIFIER OUTPUT OFDM 8-15
 DIFFICULTIES OF OFDM
• PAPR problem (continued)
– Expensive amplifiers have wide linear range
• Solutions
– Could reduce the peak amplitude
• Called input backoff
• But this would increase the signal to interference plus noise
ratio (SINR)
– Noise and interference would be relatively stronger because signal
is weaker
– Specific PAPR reduction techniques can be used
• Specialized coding, phase adjustments, clipping, etc.
• Single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA)

OFDM 8-16
 DIFFICULTIES OF OFDM
• Intercarrier Interference (ICI)
– OFDM frequencies are spaced very precisely
– Channel impairments can corrupt this
– Cyclic prefix helps reduce ICI
• But CP time should be limited so as to improve spectral
efficiency
• A certain level of ICI may be tolerated to have smaller CPs
– Doppler spread, mismatched oscillators, or even one
subcarrier can cause ICI
• Spacing between subcarriers may need to be increased
• Could also use different pulse shapes, self-interference
cancellation, or frequency domain equalizers.

OFDM 8-17
 OFDMA
• Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access
(OFDMA) uses OFDM to share the wireless channel
– Different users can have different slices of time and
different groups of subcarriers
– Subcarriers are allocated in groups
• Called subchannels or resource blocks
• Too much computation to allocate every subcarrier separately
• Subchannel allocation
– Adjacent subcarriers – similar SINR
• Must measure to find the best subchannel
– Regularly spaced subcarriers – diverse SINR
– Randomly space subcarriers – diverse SINR and reduced
adjacent-cell interference

OFDM 8-18
FIGURE 8.7 OFDM AND OFDMA
OFDM 8-19
 OPPORTUNISTIC SCHEDULING
• Schedule subchannels and power levels based on
– Channel conditions
– Data requirements
• Adjust in a dynamic fashion
– Use channel variations as an opportunity to schedule the best
choice in users
• Hence the term opportunistic scheduling
– Criteria (maybe more than one used simultaneously)
• System efficiency – pick users with best throughput
• Fairness – proportional fairness considers the ratio of users’ current
rates to the users’ average rates to know when a channel is best for
them
• Requirements – audio, video
• Priority – public safety, emergency, or priority customers

OFDM 8-20
 SINGLE-CARRIER FDMA
• SC-FDMA has similar structure and performance to
OFDMA
– But lower PAPR
– Mobile user benefits – battery life, power efficiency, lower cost
– Good for uplinks
• Uses extra DFT operation and frequency equalization
compared to OFDM
– DFT prior to IFFT
– Spreads data symbols over all subcarriers
– Every data symbol is carried by every subcarrier
• Multiple access is not possible
– At one time, all subcarriers must be dedicated to one user
– Multiple access is provided by using different time slots

OFDM 8-21
FIGURE 8.8 SIMPLIFIED BLOCK DIAGRAM OF OFDMA AND
SC-FDMA OFDM 8-22
FIGURE 8.9 EXAMPLE OF OFDMA AND SC-FDMA
OFDM 8-23